If managed sensibly, inland water bodies can go a long way to provide India with a sustainable future and food security for its population. Fish production in India registered a remarkable 16-fold increase during the last six decades to reach 12.59 mn tonnes (MT) in 2017-18, propelling the country to the...

Farming is the bedrock of India’s economy—43 per cent of its population are employed in agriculture. Yet, paradoxically, around 60 per cent of India’s people is likely to experience severe food shortages by 2050. Climate change impacts—including crop losses due to global heating—unregulated use of fertilizers and pesticides leading that degrade the soils,...

The centralized plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralized breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB)...

A prominent leader of India’s fishworkers succumbed to COVID-19 on 8 October. T Peter was a committed organizer and a practical leader with exemplary political acumen. T Peter, the General Secretary of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), India, passed away on 8 October, 2020. About a week earlier, on 2 October,...

Farmers’ participatory varietal evaluation of wheat and rice was conducted for three consecutive years from 1999 to 2002, in the Punjab, India. Farmers adopted new varieties that better met their needs and enabled them to break their monoculture dependence. They also made use of seed priming and zero tillage, a...

Using participatory plant breeding, poor and marginal farmers in Eastern India, who previously grew old and low yielding land races, produced several new varieties of upland rice. Self-help groups produced truthful seed of these rice varieties, with production rising from 39 in 2002-2003 to 81 t in 2003-2004. It was...

Municipal solid waste (MSW) can be a valuable fertilizer for peri-urban farmers in India. An integrated approach to urban waste management, currently absent, is needed to improve its use, to include segregation of waste materials (removal of plastic and glass). Thus halting the decline in quality and its management and...

India’s growing population represents 40 percent of the world’s absolute poor. Its agricultural sector accounts for nearly one third of the country’s GDP and occupies two thirds of the workforce. With an increasing food demand and some of its regions, like the eastern plateau region, receiving very little rainfall, aquaculture...

Crop establishment is often poor in the semiarid tropics. However, good crop stand establishment is essential for the efficient use of water and light, and a uniform stand is a pre-requisite for cropping success. Seeds that germinate quickly produce viable seedlings that are not dependent on rapidly declining moisture in...

The centralized plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralized breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB)...

Using participatory plant breeding, poor and marginal farmers in Eastern India, who previously grew old and low yielding land races, produced several new varieties of upland rice. Self-help groups produced truthful seed of these rice varieties, with production rising from 39 in 2002-2003 to 81 t in 2003-2004. It was...

The Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that works across 60 000 villages in 16 states of India, reaching out to over 4.5 million farmers. In BAIF’s programme area in the Dharwad district of India, high mortality among goat kids in the rainy season was reported...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Paticipatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB)...

This practice describes the efficacy of herbal de-wormers vis-à-vis their chemical counterparts. By means of a participatory research approach, the effectiveness of herbal de-wormers based on traditional knowledge has been tested successfully serving as a proof of the importance of local and often orally transmitted expertise to fight livestock diseases. ...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in the more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding...

Anthra, a non-profit organization working primarily on issues of livestock development in the wider context of sustainable natural resource use, worked with migratory shepherd communities in Maharashtra, India. Access to information on disease occurrence and remedial measures emerged as a constraint for shepherds on the move. Keeping in mind that...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in the more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding...

This good practice note based on the experiences of BAIF Development Research Foundation (Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation - BAIF), shows the importance of restoring common property resources by involving the communities directly, as a way forward for impacting positively on their quality of life. “Protection of Commons” has led to...

Poor farmers in marginal areas have benefited little from high yielding, "green revolution" varieties that have transformed the productivity of more favourable areas. In the states of northeastern India, farmers who cultivate upland rice on low-fertility, sloping soils continue to grow low yielding landraces that are susceptible to diseases and...

The Agroecology Fund’s second global Agroecology Learning Exchange, held in February 2020 in Karnataka, India, was an extraordinary gathering of more than 70 farmers and agroecology advocates from frontline organizations, researchers, allies, and donors. The Agroecology Fund’s mission, at its core, is to support a growing global agroecology movement to...